Nine Feet Underground

It is Friday and I still don't have my access back. It's going to make work today interesting. Access was restored at around half-one, just after I meditated. Om. A very busy afternoon of work, trying to catch up on lost time, but I still finished a little after five as we are off into town and out for a meal tonight. A quick change before catching the bus to Liverpool One.  Back home now.  Had a great evening - we queued up at the Eurovision store and bought some souvenirs of the event, though not necessarily for ourselves. As we left with our purchases we headed for the Italian restaurant on the Albert Dock.  Again the place was buzzin' with a dude dancing atop a yellow submarine hosting a DJ playing dance music. Flags of many nations.  People happy just to be there. After dinner, we wandered the docks and grabbed an ice cream before heading back. A fun night out! Caravan / 'Here Am I' / 'Blind Dog At St. Dunstans' [[If you're paying attention, you...

It's Australia Day today, though that is something very controversial these days.  Many people refer to it as 'Invasion Day' now and there is a movement for change which is gaining momentum.   Son #1 is off to 'work' for the third and final day this week whilst I'll be working away at home.  He's been really good at time-keeping and learnt some valuable lessons. I am proud of him and the progress he's made and continues to make. I haven't written much about E of late, mainly because there's been little or no discernible change.  She still has the cough, less often, but it seems stable.  She endures the life she continues to lead, which is not much of one really. It's Idler drinks night and the guest is Irvine Welsh, of 'Trainspotting' fame. He's a fascinating guest and lives an interesting life. He's an advocate of microdosing to stimulate the creative process, and is the first creative I've heard say that. Lot's of ne...

Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas Day is a day for cooking, presents, time spent with family (wherever in the world), not for blogging. Highlights of the day, in no particular order (necessarily), were: opening presents on a video call with Q and her family; doing the same with son #2 and his gf in Costa Rica and meeting her mum and dad, who only speak Spanish (which I don't, but tried); sharing dinner preparation and serving with sons  1 and 3; having breakfast with sons 1 and 3 whilst watching Tom and Jerry (especially 'The Night Before Christmas', something of a family tradition; watching 'Four Weddings and A Funeral' together, still finding it funny (as did my sons) and still shedding a tear (contact lenses); a chat with my big sister; and, speaking to Q too. The winter, and Christmas in particular, seems often to bring sadness to our house too.  I got a call from my brother-in-law bringing the sad news that my father-in-law died early this morning. It wasn...

Today will be a day of mixed emotions.   The day starts well and once ready Q and I head for the shops to buy bread and pastries and, more importantly, breakfast at a local lounge to set ourselves up for the day ahead.  I guess Q needs this more than me as she is facing the prospect of 17 hours on planes and even longer spent travelling until she reaches Perth (in Australia, natch!) After breakfast, we returned home for final packing and case luggage weighing.  Car loaded, it's now time to head for Terminal 4. I drove us to the airport, parked up and headed for departures. There was quite a queue for check-in as there are three Qatar Airways flights to Doha this afternoon. I was reminded that queuing to check-in is one of the things I hate most about flying.  Once we got to the desk, the fun and games began.  Q is a seasoned traveller and was not phased by it at all, but in all honesty, it was stressing me out and I wasn't even the one travelling!...

The final working day of my week, and it's going to be a busy one.  What sort of insane brain wiring makes me feel guilty about being on leave tomorrow so soon after being off ill? At one point I seriously thought about cancelling some of my leave in order to progress the project I'm working on.  Luckily, sanity prevailed and I turned my thinking around. It would appear that the Protestant work ethic is deeply ingrained. It's getting a bit late to fix that and I'm clearly failing my Idler entrance exam. Notwithstanding all that soul searching and hand wringing, I have work to get on with, and so today will be another day of few words. Probably. Social services interrupted my productive day to check if it was OK for E to come home tomorrow.  Swiftly followed by a call from the hospital ward admin person to confirm transport has been booked for tomorrow.  Now it just has to happen. Fingers and everything crossable crossed.  My cold (or whatever it was) is receding...

Bank Holiday Monday, so no yoga, though I am due to have flying lesson number two later this afternoon.  Had yoga been on, I could have managed to fit both in, which would have been quite a result as I think yoga, and the flexibility it gives the body is useful for flying - certainly for getting in and out of the cockpit! My flying lesson is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m., so around midday I call the flying club to check the weather is OK for my lesson, and it is. I was pretty certain it was as I've been watching the planes in the circuit at White Waltham and listening to the radio calls they make just to familiarise myself with the heights, speeds and to find out which runway is in use. At some point I'll be the one making the radio calls and though I'm reasonably familiar with normal circuit procedures, I need to learn with a view to being the pilot as opposed to just knowing which aircraft are where (which is, of course, also vital!) It's almost half-one and time to head ...

Another week begins. Usual start to Monday, more or less. Son #1 was up early to go to Guildford and spend the day with his gf. Outside.  Not sure this is the best day to do that. The morning passes and afternoon brings the first change to the mundane. Christmas lights.  I stick them up outside around the porch and garage. Nothing too spectacular - some of my neighbours appear to be in some kind of 'war of the lights', with at least two of them (possibly a third) trying to out do the other. I honestly don't see the point. I do love Christmas, primarily because we are usually together and I'm not working, even though much of it is just hassle.  When we both used to organise it, it was much better and easier.  Now I just appreciate how much effort goes into having some kind of enjoyable Christmas.  From this far off (far?!?!?) there still seems a mountain to climb: I've barely got any presents, I've only sent one card, more to follow, and apart from some food...

[Normal service will be resumed...at some point] Friday's blog can only be about the gig - Caravan supported by Curved Air - even though there is so much more to write about. ULU is an interesting venue:  the main hall and a small balcony area above, with maybe 50 or 60 seats.  We went for the balcony for the view but also because I hadn't figured on dancing, leastwise not in the way other bands and musical genres might do. More than anything it reminded me of my student days going to gigs at Leeds University's legendary venue. Curved Air played first and did a surprisingly long set, given they were support.  I have to confess that I'm only really familiar with their hit single 'Back Street Luv' though I've probably heard other stuff of theirs but I guess it went in one ear and out the other without making any impression. Single aside, there were only a few things I knew about Curved Air before this night: Sonja Kristina - as a pubescent teenag...

I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist it - it's even the title of compilation by quintessential Canterbury band Caravan - but my musings on the album titled The Wilde Flowers could only have one title. It probably hasn't escaped your notice that Mr NineFeetUnderground is quite a fan of the Canterbury sound / scene (is it a 'sound' or is it a 'scene'?) - both past and present, so it should also come as no surprise that the release (or strictly should that be "modified re-release"?) of an album by the band who are the progenitors of almost every original Canterbury band should arouse some interest. [Aside: Even if it has escaped your notice I'm still writing about the album anyway. So there.] I'm not going to witter on about whether or not the Canterbury sound is a lazy music journo invention or indeed whether every band that spawned, directly or indirectly, from the metaphoric loins of The Wilde Flowers actually conforms to s...

Earlier in December (1st) Richard Coughlan, drummer and original member of Canterbury-scene band Caravan, died after a long illness. Though I never met him the music he made with Caravan sounds as great today as it did when I first heard it as a teenager. Keyboards and guitar dominate the band's sound, but the versatility and variety of percussion and drum patterns Richard played underpin all of their best songs. He will be greatly missed. Caravan continue to make music today - though with only Pye Hastings remaining from the band that made their first album back in 1969 - but it's most fitting to choose a couple of older Caravan songs featuring Richard in his memory. "Place of My Own" from Caravan's first album: Finally the song generally referred to as "For Richard" (though the title refers to Richard Sinclair, not Richard Coughlan) from Caravan's second album, "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You...

A recent email from the Caravan Information Service alerted me to the imminent (30th May) release of a 40th Anniversary deluxe edition of 'In the Land of Grey and Pink'. Given all the extra tracks that were added to the remastered versions of the albums Caravan recorded for the DERAM (Decca) label, not to mention the extras surfaced on the 4CD Decca anthology ('The World is Yours') released last year, I did wonder what they could find to fill the 3 disc release. Well, there's not a huge amount of new material, however probably enough nuggets for the fan of the band or album.  Disc one contains a new remastering of the original album, plus an unreleased mix and two unreleased versions of tracks from the album.  Disc two includes some more unreleased versions and mixes, of which the version of 'Nigel Blows A Tune' is potentially the most interesting. The rest of this disc includes tracks recorded live for the BBC, which I believe are a...